← All events
heritage · Wednesday 19 August 2026 · 11:30am 
Tales from the Trenches - Cavan County Museum
At Cavan County Museum · Virginia Road, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan, A82 YP70
At Cavan County Museum · Virginia Road, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan, A82 YP70
Cavan County Museum opens its WW1 trench to the public each summer, and during Heritage Week it does something more: a storyteller walks visitors through the replica trenches and brings the people behind them back to life. Tales from the Trenches is a guided family event focused on Cavan men who served in the First World War - some of whom never came home. It suits curious adults, history buffs, and school-age children equally, and the outdoor setting makes the stories land in a way a classroom never quite manages.
A guide leads each group through the museum and out into the full trench complex at the back of the building. The trench is no token prop - it is the largest outdoor replica WW1 trench open to the public in Ireland or Britain, stretching over 350 metres and including frontline, communication and support sections, all built to the original specifications of the Irish Guards and Royal Irish Fusiliers. It was constructed using more than 6,000 sandbags and includes sound and visual effects that give a sense of what life in the trenches actually felt like. A recent renovation also widened the trenches for mobility aids and added a ramp and Perspex panels to the viewing platform.
During the storytelling sessions, the narrative draws on personal effects and letters held in the museum’s permanent WW1 exhibition - material that grounds the stories in specific Cavan families rather than abstract history. Each session runs about an hour. There are five sessions across four days: 19 August at 11:30am, 20 August at 2pm, 21 August at 11:30am, and 23 August at both 11:30am and 2pm.
The event is part of National Heritage Week, running 15 to 23 August 2026.
Ballyjamesduff sits in central Cavan, just off the M3 Dublin-to-Cavan motorway, making it roughly an hour and twenty minutes by car from Dublin. Coming from Belfast or Monaghan, the N54 and N3 connect to the town without difficulty. There is free car parking on site at the museum. Bus Eireann services run between Cavan town and Ballyjamesduff if you are arriving without a car, though the museum itself is a short walk from the town centre.
The town has a lively main street with cafes and a good bakery worth a stop after the tour. There is more to see in Ballyjamesduff and across Co. Cavan.
Heading to Cavan County Museum in Ballyjamesduff? Cavan has plenty more to see. Read the Ballyjamesduff area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.